According to Nutton, we are unable to identify any diseases familiar to us today because because we are hampered by the great difference between ancient and modern understanding of the concept of 'a disease'. What evidence/claim does he make to support this?

According to Nutton, we are unable to identify any diseases familiar to us today because we are hampered by the great difference between ancient and modern understanding of the concept of 'a disease'.

The evidence or claim he makes to support this, is in his book "Seeds of Disease" where he states that during the ancient medicine practice, the interpretatation was not held nor rigorously or strict, employing words far looser metaphoric sense, interchangeably with what they had known from Galen instead.

Explanation:

Professor Vivian Nutton specialises in the history of the classical tradition in medicine, from Antiquity to the present, and particularly on Galen. He is currently co-editor of Medical History. Heirs of Hippocrates, how they exercised their influence, and how they were received and interpreted over the centuries, are fascinating stories. It was taken over and translated into Latin, Arabic, Hebrew and a range of European languages.

His main work has focused around Galen of Pergamum (129-216/7 AD), the most prolific writer to survive from the ancient world, whose combination of great learning and practical skill imposed his ideas on learned doctors for centuries, and, secondly, on the development of medical ideas and practices in the Renaissance of the sixteenth century.